The word gendhing in Javanese gamelan is a generic term that can refer to any piece in the repertoire. However, the pieces explicitly named gendhing tend to be larger forms, or are otherwise central to the art. Though most of these pieces are thought of implicitly as gendhing rebab, featuring the rebab (two-stringed fiddle) as the leading melodic instrument, the first piece in tonight's program, Gendhing bonang Glendheng, dispenses with all the soft-style instruments and allows the bonang (with its two arrays of horizontally racked gongs) to lead the sparse ensemble. The subtle and not-so-subtle melodic and rhythmic twists and turns you hear in this piece (especially the second section, which accelerates on every repetition) are unusual, even perhaps for gendhing bonang. This piece focuses on notes 1-2-4-5-6 of the seven-note pelog scale, with the notes 3 and 7 used here to occasional, surprising effect.

Traditionally used as the first piece in a performance to ensure good luck and prosperity, gamelan groups outside of Java tend to teach Ladrang Wilujeng as the first piece one learns on any instrument. Indeed, most performers this evening on this piece will be performing on their instruments for the first time. Ladrang Wilujeng will be preceded by a short pathetan, or mood-piece, played by the soft-style instruments, meant to transition to a new scale and mode (slendro manyura).

Ladrang Lara-Lara Topeng will start tonight with kebar, a style of playing that features intricate drumming on the ciblon and interlocking (imbal) and flowering (kembangan) patterns on the bonang, which will appear again later in the piece with the chorus.

There are several pieces in the gamelan repertoire which are associated with ancient ceremonial gamelans. One of these is Gendhing Kodhok Ngorek, which means "croaking frog" and shares its name with the gamelan that inspired it. This piece (whose basic balungan melody features only two notes of the pelog scale) is commonly performed for wedding ceremonies by modern ensembles. This evening you will hear and see interesting ways to mimic unusual instruments associated with this piece, such as laying a key horizontally over others to produce a loud rattle, and playing the (slendro!) gender without felt on the mallets, to mimic the ancient (and now obscure) gambang gangsa. We use this piece to wrap the relatively conventional Ketawang Laras Maya.

The ayak-ayakan is a short form traditionally associated with wayang, or puppet theatre, and is distinguished by irregular structure and prominent use of the large tuned gongs. Ayak-ayakan Kaloran is a derivation of the basic ayak-ayakan and, with its tuneful chorus, is a popular piece to end concerts.